Padgett, 15, also wounded a teacher, Todd Rispler. Rispler suffered a minor wound but managed to get to the school office so officials could initiate a lockdown and call police for help.

After police began to arrive, Padgett went into a bathroom in the gymnasium building and shot himself to death. No clear motive for the attack has yet been released by investigators, though a journal that Padgett kept indicated that he saw some of his classmates as "sinners" and thought they should be killed.

Police have said, however, that Hoffman, 14, was probably simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was shot.